It's official - fathers do have an impact on their children - for good or bad. Obvious? Maybe so, but it's surprising how often dads are at best seen as an afterthought in family life or at worst actively discouraged from being involved. New research out today charts the effect a dad can have on their children from educational attainment to self-esteem, from criminality to emotional maturity. Importantly, it also shows that involving dads more is good for mums and good for gender equality.

Of course, as the Fatherhood Institute, we would say that wouldn't we? But today we release new research that shows mums want dads to be involved more than ever, with seven out of 10 believing that "Dad's are just as good as me" at being a parent. While six out of 10 people say that society assumes mothers are good for children, but fathers have to prove it.

An overwhelming 95% of people believe it's important for dads to spend time caring for children in their first two years, yet the research shows that dads are missing out on more than one month each year with their children because of the anti-social hours they work. So we can write off January. New year for dads begins on February 1.

It's a familiar picture. Mum leaves her full-time job to go on maternity leave, a baby is born, dad has to work longer hours to support the family so gets less time to spend with them. It makes financial sense for her to become the main carer for the child as she earns less than him. She then goes back to work part-time, probably on low pay. Their roles polarise, inequality persists, driving the pay gap between the sexes. Both mum and dad are likely to experience frustration and dissatisfaction with the arrangement, but they're trapped in it nevertheless. Government attempts to support families by allowing mums to transfer part of their maternity leave to dads will only work where couples can afford to do it. Unfortunately, in practice, it won't help the majority of families. But it's not too late for them to get it right. We want to see a shake-up of parental leave so that dads can spend more time with their children, particularly those under two. This means more paid leave that dads can take in their own right.

Fathers reading with their children in all primary schools, improving antenatal classes for both parents and allowing dads to stay overnight with their partners on maternity wards are just some of the ways that public services could involve them more. And we want to see services holding fathers to account. Sadly, it's still seen as "acceptable" for dads to be less involved or to walk away altogether. Expectations of fathers to care for and support their children should be as high as the expectations of mothers.

Mums want dads to be more involved and public opinion supports it, but somehow government and policy makers are still getting it wrong. Will 2008 be the year where they finally catch up with the realities of family life?